“This new equipment will allow us to better understand tumor response during treatment and give us a way of looking at the tumor that was not possible before,” said Gregory Czarnota, M.D., head of radiation oncology at Odette Cancer Centre.

The MR-linac is the only MR/RT system that integrates a premium (1.5 Tesla) MR scanner with an advanced linear accelerator and intelligent software, according to Elekta. It is expected to deliver precisely targeted radiation doses while simultaneously capturing high-quality MR images, which will allow clinicians to visualize tumors at any time and adapt the treatment accordingly.

“Real-time understanding of tumor response will help us adjust treatment, focus radiation on tumors with pinpoint precision, and spare healthy tissue from radiation,” said Arjun Sahgal, M.D., head of Odette’s Cancer Ablation Therapy Program. “We are proud of all the work that has taken place to bring this technology to Sunnybrook.”

Sunnybrook is a member of Elekta’s MR-linac Consortium, a global collaboration of institutions focused on uniting leaders in radiation oncology, MR-imaging, physics and radiotherapists. The mission of the consortium is to investigate how MR-linac technology can lead to improved patient outcomes for existing radiation therapy indications and extend radiation therapy for additional indications.

Elekta introduced the MR-linac technology under the name of Unity during the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) congress in Vienna, Austria in April this year.

Installation of Elekta’s MR-linac is complete at the six other consortium member sites including:

The Institute of Cancer Research, working with its clinical partner The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, England;

The Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin Clinical Cancer Center at Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee; and

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, U.K.

Sunnybrook is the lead consortium site for developing applications of the MR-linac in the treatment of glioblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in adults. Sahgal and his team have developed a protocol to evaluate advanced imaging for primary cancers of the brain and have designed a clinical trial that will explore using the technology to adapt the radiation dose delivered to primary brain tumors on a daily basis. Sunnybrook anticipates that it will initiate patient treatments once the device is Health Canada approved.

Elekta Unity is a work in progress and not available for sale or distribution.

Miami Cancer Institute’s Proton Therapy Center is the first in South Florida and the region’s top destination for this leading-edge treatment. Proton therapy is an advanced form of radiation therapy that uses pencil beam scanning (PBS) technology.

A new technique developed by researchers at UC Davis offers a significant advance in using magnetic resonance imaging to pick out even very small tumors from normal tissue. The team created a probe that generates two magnetic resonance signals that suppress each other until they reach the target, at which point they both increase contrast between the tumor and surrounding tissue. Image courtesy of Xiandoing Xue, UC Davis

Samples were taken along rivers around Tokyo. Measurements of rare earth element quantities indicate a clearly elevated amount of gadolinium compared to that in natural shale. Graphics courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan University